Evans' New Animated Fare Not Kid Stuff

October 22, 2003|By Tom Jicha TV/Radio Writer

Robert Evans is a Hollywood legend. A failed actor, he went on to produce some of Hollywood's most memorable films -- Love Story, Rosemary's Baby, Urban Cowboy and Chinatown among them. As head of Paramount, he green-lighted The Godfather. He is said to be the inspiration for the manic producers in S.O.B. and Wag the Dog. His personal life has been colorful enough to support a tabloid. He married almost as often as Henry VIII, with Love Story star Ali McGraw, former Miss America-turned-TV personality Phyllis George and Catherine Oxenberg among his spouses. The latter almost shouldn't count; the marriage was over in less than two weeks.

Those unfamiliar with the life of "Kid Notorious," Evans' nickname, may not get every reference in a new animated series roughly based on his exploits. The more familiar the audience is with Evans, the more enjoyable Comedy Central's Kid Notorious will be. But armed with just the information above, Kid Notorious is hilarious, a stinging satire on Hollywood.

Only someone with an ego larger than the Hollywood sign would get involved in such a blatant exercise in self-idolatry. Fortunately, Evans makes Geraldo Rivera look humble.

A control freak, Evans wields full power over Kid Notorious. He's the executive producer and supplies his own voice. Every scene is written to enhance his self-image as the smartest executive and biggest ladies' man ever to hit Tinseltown. His attitude is, if a movie was great, he must have made it. The first scene of the series has Evans, now 73, in a kinky situation with a starlet.

Even Kid Notorious' fabled Hollywood estate, dubbed Woodland, is celebrated. The staff at the house, a butler named English and a sassy housekeeper named Tollie Mae, each a stereotype, are regular characters.

Evans also is an obsessive name-dropper and he doesn't limit himself to show business. Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Rupert Murdoch, Donald Rumsfeld and Wolfgang Puck are among the involuntary participants in the series. Some of the names Evans drops are not going to like what he says. Kid Notorious is as far from political correctness as the most outrageous programs of Neil Rogers and Howard Stern. Various ethnic groups are lampooned and some A-list talent is all but outed.

If Sharon Stone is not an incredibly good sport, Evans and Comedy Central might be hearing from her lawyers. Evans produced Sliver, starring Stone, and it must not have been a rewarding experience. The barbs hurled at her are more mean-spirited than playful. The premiere of Kid Notorious is built around Stone's most notorious screen scene in Basic Instinct. Comedy Central has scheduled Kid Notorious at 10:30, which still might be too early; this cartoon is definitely not for the young ones. Some of the lines that will prompt open-minded viewers to laugh out loud can't be described even euphemistically in a family newspaper.

In the pilot, Evans is feuding with Stone. He decides to take his revenge by opening his latest brainstorm, a hip-hop version of The Godfather, opposite a new one-woman play, produced by and starring Stone. The idea for The Godfather spinoff comes to Evans while he's locked with Bloods and Crips in a holding cell for a traffic indiscretion.

Kid Notorious is very inside Hollywood, but even the most distant outsiders will find plenty of fodder for amusement. Satire generally doesn't hang around long, but for as long as Comedy Central sticks with Kid Notorious, it will be the most subversively funny series this side of South Park.